Anthropic says Claude may want to see your ID

Anthropic may ask Claude users to verify their age and identity by uploading their government-issued documents, according to a new version of the company’s privacy policy. The AI giant says the move was to allow users to appeal having their account flagged for potentially fraudulent activity rather than outright banning them, but comes at a time as Anthropic seeks to placate the Trump administration amid an ongoing standoff over who gets access to the company’s AI tools. According to a new section in its latest privacy policy published earlier in June and set to take effect on July 8, Anthropic says it will ask for a user to prove their age or identity “in certain circumstances,” without providing specific examples. While Anthropic has long required users to be over-18 to use Claude, the company earlier this year introduced age verification checks to comply with various states and countries that require them. Identity checks were also announced , but weren’t reflected in the company’s privacy policy until more recently. When triggered, the policy would require those users to upload a photo scan of a government-issued passport or driver’s license. Anthropic says it will also collect a person’s selfie photo or video and the person’s digitized version as a face geometry template (which some states, like Illinois, considers legally protected biometric data). Anthropic says it will also keep a record of the verification result, such as whether the user has reached a certain age. …